Sunday, November 29, 2015

The film is
“Chinatown.” In 1937 Los Angeles
detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be a
Mrs. Mulwray to spy on her husband. Shortly after Gittes is hired, the real
Mrs. Mulwray appears in his office threatening to sue if he doesn't drop the
case immediately. Gittes pursues the
case anyway, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy centering on water management,
state and municipal corruption, land use and real estate, and involving at
least one murder.

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "U" is for "unfaithful")Our quiz question
is about movies this week.

Because of certain
stories that are very much in the news these days, I got to thinking of a
motion picture of some years back that has been described as a classic.

In some ways it was
your typical detective story. Our hero,
a private investigator – we’ll call him “J” - is contacted by a woman who would
like to know if her husband has been wandering over to the cheating side of
town.

Rather banal and
routine; another adultery case, usually not too profitable for a private
eye. Unless, of course, the characters
involved, the angry woman and the adulteristic hubby, happen to have a lot of
money and influence.

Which they have. The male, in fact, is one of the most
powerful and influential people in the entire region. “J” begins to think he may have latched on to
something big. Big cases mean big
billable hours.

He lackadaisically follows the
gentleman about. This has him attending
various commission meetings and wandering in the hinterlands, for some reason
visiting reservoirs and dams.

He also manages to take
an intimate picture of the unfaithful husband with a friend, a nubile
young woman of a blonde persuasion. A nude photo and its juicy story make newspaper headlines all over the place.

With publicity like
this, “J” figures he has it made. All
kinds of new business should come pouring into his office.

What actually did come
pouring in was surprising.

A woman claiming to
be the man’s wife – his real wife – shows up with her lawyer preparing to sue “J”
for slander and defamation of character, among other things.

It seems the gal
who originally hired him was pretending
to be the wife, all of which has our private eye, and probably a lot of the
film’s audience, pretty solidly confused.
Along the way there’s a murder, too.

As for the makeshift motivation of the film, “J” learns that in this part of the country the word
“gold” was spelled with five letters – W. A. T. E. R. – and in his state that was
a substance more valuable than oil or diamonds.
(It’s about that again today.)

With the word water, my first guess was Chinatown. We just spent a week's vacation in Los Angeles and water is indeed a concern. We drove past the aqueduct waterfall on the way to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner. When I was a kid I always asked my parents to "Wake me at the waterfall" on our way north to my grandparent's place in central California. Sadly, there was no water coming down the raceway as we passed. And as I recall the movie, it was that way until someone turned the water on and the actor almost got washed away. - Margy

I can honestly say I've never seen said fascinating movie. But now I want to!I took part in writing a piece about infidelity for the Three Word Wednesday prompt too. It isn't a detective story, though, and the unfaithful fellow is actually more innocent that he would appear to be at first glance.

No surprise there then, the cinema really is not my forte!I must confess to have not heard of Chinatown although I likeJack Nicholson, particularly in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo'sNest'. That was probably the last time I went to the cinema!when 'cuckoos nest' was released!Best wishes,Di xx